Detection and clinical significance of DNA repair gene ERCC8 tag SNPs in gastric cancer.

Background/aims: Excision repair cross-complementing group 8 (ERCC8) is one of the members of the nucleotide excision repair pathway. This study aimed to explore the association between ERCC8 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gastric cancer.

Materials And Methods: Totally, 120 patients with gastric cancer treated from March 2010 to March 2011 were selected as the observation group and 120 healthy individuals were selected as the control group during the same period.

"Freezing", morphing, and folding of stretchy tough hydrogels.

Highly stretchable and tough Ca-alginate/polyacrylamide hydrogels were "frozen" and folded into program-controlled shapes by exposing them to an Fe ion aqueous solution. The elastic modulus of the as-made tough gels increased either in bulk or locally up to 2.90 MPa, while the toughness remained within the range from 8.

Hydrophilic Sponges for Leaf-Inspired Continuous Pumping of Liquids.

A bio-inspired, leaf-like pumping strategy by mimicking the transpiration process through leaves is developed for autonomous and continuous liquid transport enabled by durable hydrophilic sponges. Without any external power sources, flows are continuously generated ascribed to the combination of capillary wicking and evaporation of water. To validate this method, durable hydrophilic polydimethylsiloxane sponges modified with polyvinyl alcohol via a "dip-coat-dry" method have been fabricated, which maintains hydrophilicity more than 2 months.

Microfluidic Patterning of Metal Structures for Flexible Conductors by In Situ Polymer-Assisted Electroless Deposition.

is developed for patterning structures of highly conductive metals (e.g., copper, silver, and nickel) on chemically modified flexible polyethylene terephthalate thin films by in situ polymer-assisted electroless metal deposition.

Bioinspired, Mechano-Regulated Interfaces for Rationally Designed, Dynamically Controlled Collection of Oil Spills from Water.

This study describes the fabrication of bioinspired mechano-regulated interfaces (MRI) for the separation and collection of oil spills from water. The MRI consists of 3D-interconnected, microporous structures of sponges made of ultrasoft elastomers (Ecoflex). To validate the MRI strategy, ecoflex sponges are first fabricated with a low-cost sugar-leaching method.

Accelerating the "On Water" Reaction: By Organic-Water Interface or By Hydrodynamic Effects?

A series of organic reactions proceed dramatically faster in a heterogeneous mixture of the reactants and water than in a homogeneous mixture. Currently it is unclear whether the rate acceleration is due to the free OH groups at the organic-water interface, or due to the hydrodynamic effects caused by vigorous stirring, vortexing, or ultrasonication. Herein we produced static droplets in microfluidic devices to answer this question.